The Future Champions of Test Cricket

When Glenn McGrath retires, Australia will no longer be able to take 20 wickets in a Test match at the rate they currently do and Glenn McGrath is well into his 30's and doesn't have much longer to play in his awesome career. Australia has not got any young seam bowlers who have the ability to bowl a consistent line and length like Glenn McGrath, meaning when Glenn McGrath retires Australia will have no one to replace him and as a result Austraila will no longer have the attack that is primarily responsible for their success. Australia do have superior batsman, but you must remember they aren't facing superior bowling attacks the callibre of Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie. Now, Brett Lee is a strike bowler, he isn't an opener, he cannot produce a tight line and length consistently and will not be able to replace Glenn McGrath. Australia's best young seamers are Brad Williams and Ashley Nofke, both talented seamers but not half as good as Glenn McGrath and will not be able to replace him.

What you must remember, is if the Australian batsman had to face bowlers like Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, then they wouldn't be such prolific run scorers and their averages would be far lower against such bowlers. Even a good batting line up will struggle against a good bowling attack. Therefore, the success to Test cricket is with the opening bowlers. Now, good batsman are needed to score the runs, I am not denying that, but almost every nation has good batsman who are just as good as Australia's batsman, but even they struggle against Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie. India has better batsman than Australia, yet they are weak in Test cricket. Australia is even with most nation as far as batting is concerned. Therefore this is more proof that Australia's success is because of their superior bowling attack. Therefore, once Glenn McGrath retires, Australia will lose their superiority. Now, Test cricket is about maintaining pressure from both ends, and Jason Gillespie alone will not be able to do this and therefore Australia will lose their ability to take 20 wickets at the rate they currently do. Heath Streak is an awesome bowler, but he has no one to back him up and therefore batsman just see him off and cash in against his weaker bowling partner. The same will happen to Jason Gillespie when Glenn McGrath retires.

England have the most talented young seam bowlers in the world at the moment coming through their ranks and will have a superior seam bowling attack over all nations very soon. England have; James Anderson, Richard Johnson, Darren Gough, Mathew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Andrew Flintoff, Stephen Harmison, Alex Tudor, Allan Mullaly and this is a talented bunch. James Anderson and Darren Gough will become the best openers in the world in fact they have nearly claimed this prize after this performance in the Natwest Challenge and Natwest Series. Andrew Flintoff is also a talented bowler who bowls a tight line and length that angles inwards and concedes on average 3.3 runs per over in ODI. In Test cricket, Flintoff will be even more effective. Therefore, England are definately going to be the best in the world very soon and I know that many Australians will reply to this stating that will never happen and that Australia will always be best, and therefore I ask these morons to PROVE that Australia will be best and not just say because they have always produce young stars because everyone knows Australia has not got any young seamers that can replace Glenn McGrath and that is fact.

I think that Australians who read this should just learn some respect and morality and admit to themselves that their nation's empire as being dominant is coming to an end and is going to be succeeded by the enermy which is England, so whether you like it or not "ADMIT IT".

Australians are reluctant to admit that England are dominant in rugby union eventhought England has won the last 4 matches played between the 2 nations and Australia hasn't won a match against England since 1999. Now, if Australians won't admit that England are better than Australia after England has beaten Australia in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 and Australia hasn't beaten England since 1999, then that is proof they will never admit that England is best. Australia have not been able to win in New Zealand since 2000, and lost in South Africa in 2002 and England beat New Zealand in New Zealand this year and beat South Africa 53-3 at Twickenham and Australia hasn't beaten South Africa by such a margin in Australia in a long time. In fact Scotland and Argentina came closer to winning in South Africa than Australia did last year.

There's a few names in the England seam bowling list who don't quite deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as one or two of the others, but there is certainly some real talent being unearthed.

Flintoff is certainly becoming a real force now as opposed to being a 'bits and pieces' player - his action is now allowing him to get a little more body into the delivery - I can see him making a few jump around in the next year or two.

Anderson just seems to have a happy knack of taking wickets - either with good balls or rubbish. That's a rare knack.

Johnson - more than useful at present but whether he can do it against good batting sides, I don't know.

Harmison - ah well. He will have his day on occasion - true pace can get anyone out but he tends to be erratic.

Jones - he could become great or he could perhaps never get there. Too early to say.

McGrath will be around for a while yet... he is rarely injured and this will prolong his career, Lee should open the bowling and will after McGrath i think with his ability to swing the ball when its new, as well as when its old

Australia has a number of up and comers who you may know in england, the main one is Ashley Noffke, not sure how he goes in england but his performances in Australia this year were pretty solid (37 wickets @21.5), highlighted with taking 6-24 against NSW in the pura cup (he removed the following batsmen - Slater, Mail, Katich,S Waugh, Clarke and Haddin -pretty goood effort if you ask me)

another youngseter who has been talked about alot on these forums is Michael Clarke so im not gonna say more about him

weve also got Hauritz, Clark, Bracken, Williams and a few others

ohh and please please bring Harmison back, we love him here in australia

Michael Clarke is the ONLY good young batsman that Australia has, none of the others are worth talking about.

Ashley Nofke is good, but will never be able to replace Glenn McGrath.

Nathan Hauritz is mediocre at best, Nathan Bracken is ok, Brad Williams is mediocre and all the others are hopeless. I know as I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and watch them play at the Gabba every year.

i doubt there will be anyone as good as Mcgrath for many many years (from australia) but i dont have to worry as i doubt england will produce anyone anywhere near that good.

Bracken is awsome, much better in one day than 4 dayers though, still top quailty, Hauritz is similar.

Williams i dont rate but everyone else seems to think hes pretty good

Noffke can easily be as good as anyone who comes out of england...

another player i forgot to mention was ofcourse Shane Watson, plenty of potential there...

young - how do you classify young, players that will be around for 10 more years - in that case i would probably consider Ponting as young, Ronchi from WA is a promising youngster.

there are a few promising prospects in NSW, but unfortunatley as the NSW side is so strong they do net get a chance such as Jarrad Burke, Jason Krejza, Aaron O'Brien and Aaron Bird, hopefully some of them will get more of a chance to show their talents this year so we can get a better idea about how good they are

Shawn are u comparing Australia and England or do other countries get a chance. I think that England has a good team coming through however if you look at the Domestic cricket from other countries you will see the same.

I think I can see that you have had a look at county cricket and know the Australian domestic cricket however india, south africa, new zealand, and all the other test nations have good players coming through, it is just their domestic competition doesn't get the same media coverage around the world.

Talent

Well I do not rate New Zealand as a future prospect, they just don't have the talent. Sure they have Shane Bond, but who else have they got? They have no decent spinnners and a very weak batting line up. New Zealand are no where near the top and won't be for awhile.

India is well from the top as they lack ability to produce decent seamers and without seamers India will not be anywhere near the top.

Pakistan are a future prospect but I can't see them challenging England or Australia.

The future Australian team you named is pretty weak in my opinion and would struggle against England and would not win in South Africa.

England will be best in Test cricket in the future and no one will challenge them.

I disagree with you Shaun, that India does not have any quality seamers.

Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Aavishkar Salvi are three of the best young seamers in the world at the moment (along with James Anderson and Dilhara Fernando and Mohammad Sami)

Im sure you weren't living under a rock during the World Cup.
Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra took plenty and plenty of wickets against the best teams in the World. It was because of the seam bowling and Tendulkar that we got to the Final in 2003.

And look out for Aavishkar Salvi when India tour down under this summer, because he will cause some problems.

India

OK, the Indian seamers may have taken wickets against Kenya, and Holland and Namibia, but they played England on a deteriorated pitch that made life easy for the seamers, they got hammered by Australia twice in the tournament and in New Zealand they were dissappointing on a pitch that offered a lot to them. They do not have the consistency that is required at Test level, they do have talent but they lack consistentcy. New Zealand has no talent, I remember reading an article about Shayne O'Connor being their depth and he is retired. If New Zealand had any decent youngsters like Shane Bond they would be in the team, but obviously they don't have any youngsters.